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If I leave Hide HD Duplicates ON and look at the "Guide" page on the iPad and go to tomorrow or a day or two after, the guide does NOT magically change to show my locals. I guess you are saying the list of stations would be updated if the HD locals were going to turn on tomorrow.

That was my thinking... yes.

Thanks for trying to help here. I guess I'll just see what happens tomorrow. Hopefully I get a nice surprise. I know a number of other people in the local area who will be happy when it happens.

I'm doubtful they will show up tomorrow given that the trick is working with Lafayette, LA tomorrow, but we could be surprised. Hopefully they will soon...

I didn't have ANY locals until 2010, so I know how the anticipation gets to you. I'm lucky in that most of mine were only in testing for a week before going live, but the months leading up to that was surely nail-biting worthy.

I'm hoping Bakersfield and Monterey go live next week. After waiting several long years and over three years after they were originally scheduled, it would be nice if in the end they went live ahead of the September date I was told a couple months back. It won't make me forget all the years I've been waiting for them while every other carrier in my area had them, but it would be one tiny victory in what has been a long tedious battle. I'm still waiting for something to go wrong.

DMA 124 just went live HD LIL today. Monterey/Salinas is DMA 125. I would be willing to bet a few beers you will be next!

Hey, I'd be happy to GIVE you a few beers to make that happen! But past performance has indicated that DMA number has not been the precise algorithm DTV uses for choosing what happens and when. But my fingers are crossed.

all three DMAs lost position (had a lesser count, or negative growth) from 2011 to 2012.

You can disagree with how Nielsen defines a marketing area or perhaps how they count 'TV Households'. But remember, they apply the same rules from DMA to DMA. A whole lot of decisions are based on the Nielsen benchmarks.

all three DMAs lost position (had a lesser count, or negative growth) from 2011 to 2012.

You can disagree with how Nielsen defines a marketing area or perhaps how they count 'TV Households'. But remember, they apply the same rules from DMA to DMA. A whole lot of decisions are based on the Nielsen benchmarks.

I still don't get the DMA thing. I know it's by household, but Lafayette has 120,000 people and they are #124. Bakersfield has 350,000 and we are #126. Do they assume we live 8 per house?

DMAs are the coverage area of the stations, not the population of the titular town. I live in Columbia, MD, which is part of he Baltimore DMA. The city has about 620,000 people. The DMA is about 1.1 million households. It all depends on what is in the area.

DMAs are the coverage area of the stations, not the population of the titular town. I live in Columbia, MD, which is part of he Baltimore DMA. The city has about 620,000 people. The DMA is about 1.1 million households. It all depends on what is in the area.

Yeah, I understand that, but that still doesn't explain a lot of inconsistencies. Look at gct's post. Bakersfield's statistical market is 60% larger than that of Lafayette, but we are below them on the DMA list. How can they have more households with 550,000 people compared to the 840,000 in the Bakersfield market?

Yeah, I understand that, but that still doesn't explain a lot of inconsistencies. Look at gct's post. Bakersfield's statistical market is 60% larger than that of Lafayette, but we are below them on the DMA list. How can they have more households with 550,000 people compared to the 840,000 in the Bakersfield market?

The Nielsen DMAs don't necessarily match up with the Census Bureau's MSAs.

Yeah, I understand that, but that still doesn't explain a lot of inconsistencies. Look at gct's post. Bakersfield's statistical market is 60% larger than that of Lafayette, but we are below them on the DMA list. How can they have more households with 550,000 people compared to the 840,000 in the Bakersfield market?

If there are bordering markets, that makes a difference. A town that has less around it gets a bigger market geographically. In my case, baltimore and Washington are different markets for Nielsen even though many things are shared. If Washington were not so close, the Baltimore market would be much larger geographically. It would include the area that today is DC and its suburbs (not with as much population as is there now obviously, but much larger in numbers than today).

I think the problem could be with how the Bakersfield area is calculated. There are obviously people that would fall into their DMA outside of the city, but there is less fringe area with more DMA's in California than Louisiana. Lafayette's "market reach" may also jump into Lake Charles, Baton Rouge or Alexandria where Bakersfield could dip into many more different areas.

One has to remember that Bakersfield is at the bottom of a U shaped valley, so the signals have limited reach, especially to the South and West. Two of the transmitters, comprising 3 network stations, however, are on the top of a mountain that does allow some signals to go East. The other transmitters are on a lower mountain that limits their range.

It makes it a little more clear what is part of the Lafayette DMA. You can then research how many people live in each Parish on the map. Looks like that in a nutshell, it is all Parishes surrounding Lafayette Parish, and then a few more.

[Disclaimer] The definition of "soon" is based solely on DirecTV's interpretation of the word, and all similarities with dictionary definitions of the word "soon" are purely coincidental and should not be interpreted as a time frame that will come to pass within a reasonable amount of time.

I noticed on the chart it shows Utica,NY MyTV is listed as HD only, but it is actually SD only

This is an interesting conundrum.

I am sure you are receiving WUTR (21) MNT in SD only. And the Directv website page for locals also concurs - MNT 21 is not available in HD.

Alan's Chart in this thread shows that channel as HD because of the way it shows up in our 'TPN MAP' data. The data shows this channel from TPN 1 of the SW2 sat, and clearly in MPEG4 compression. That typically indicates an HD channel. However...

Today all Directv HD channels are transmitted in MPEG4; HD channels are no longer transmitted in MPEG2 because of the wasted bandwidth. The HD transition from MPEG2 to MPEG4 happened just a few years ago.

While all HD channels are now in MPEG4 and most SD channels are still typically in MPEG2, this appears to be a case where standard def program content is being provided in MPEG4. We can clearly distinguish the MPEG4 compression - but that has nothing to do with the resolution of the program content that is being carried.